Here's why Saavn is not just the same old song and dance

The US-headquartered music streaming brand is trying to challenge the long-held habits and foster a culture of appointment-listening. Is the Indian audience ready?Amit Bapna | ETBrandEquity | Updated: April 14, 2016, 15:55 IST

Image for representation only. Credit: ThinkstockGlobally, audio is experiencing something of a resurrection. The Amazon-owned Audible allows clips and bites of audio content to be shared with one’s social community. Berlin-based online audio distribution platform SoundCloud is, as reported, trying to pitch itself as ‘YouTube for audio’ allowing users to upload, record, promote, and share their clips. WYNC, the New York public radio station, has started creating ‘audiograms’ to promote its shows on social media essentially turning a piece of audio into a video file. All of these are essentially trying to do one thing – make audio more bite-sized and shareable or make it social as video has become globally. Which also means stepping out of music-only and looking at audio in its entirety.

That is not the stated goal of Saavn, the music streaming brand with a predominantly Indian offering and base. So far, it’s had a stated positioning of ‘music is who we are’. But that’s changing with a slew of original programming in the non-music content space. Historically, India has been driven by the visual medium, with radio considered synonymous with music, mostly front-lined by Bollywood and its off-shoots. So how much business-sense does this extension make?

Shares Rishi Malhotra, co-founder and CEO, Saavn, “We built a large global audience with music, and are now using the Saavn to bring original programming to our users.” This includes an assortment in diverse genres like comedy, sports, talk, and documentaries, with Neelesh Misra, Mae Thomas, Cyrus Broacha and Ayaz Memon among others. Such programming enables differentiation, monetisation, and unique engagement opportunities that can’t be found on any other platform. Which could eventually help the company increase it’s footprint as well as translate to newer monetisation opportunities.The company that most recently raised a $100 million Series C round of funding led by Tiger Global Management, has predominantly two key revenue channels: advertising and Saavn Pro. The latter offers ad-free and offline listening. There are plans to make some of the originals series exclusive to Saavn Pro, informs Vinodh Bhat, co-founder and president, Saavn. “We are running other experiments from our learning in international markets”, he adds. After all being a company whose founding team sits in the US and whose 75% subscription base is in India, does put it in an interesting position.Manish Aggarwal, vice-president - marketing & head of monetisation, Myntra feels that in an ecosystem where all creators are focusing on short and long video formats, Saavn’s audio-only bet is a brave, differentiated one and will allow them to play in the larger entertainment space. However, the critical question is if the consumer is ready for this, especially in an ecosystem where they are spoilt for choices. For now two lead advertisers, Vodafone and PepsiCo, are supposed to be coming onboard for the soon to be launched original series.

So the oft-asked question of how ready are Indians to pay for content when so much is available free of, meets with an (expectedly) optimistic reply. Fundamentally, we believe there is an appetite to pay for access to content (and not individual pieces of content), replies Bhat. His confidence is borne out of the growth seen in the number of Saavn Pro subscribers, up 6X since 2014. “More listeners are willing to pay for a premium experience around music and audio”, he adds. The challenges of poor connectivity, an overtly Bollywood skewed populace and also a predominantly video-slanted discourse notwithstanding.

The growth should be at a healthy 20% plus for some years to come, according to Ashish Pherwani, partner, EY (Ernst & Young) LLP (India) while refusing to comment specifically on non-music content. There is always going to be space for ‘listening only’ content consumption, preferred while travelling, working or socialising, he adds.

Adds Preeti Desai, country manager, India, Mobile Marketing Association, “It’s true we live in a visual culture but it is also true that one can create powerful visuals with audio bytes that are every bit as vivid.” It would definitely be a tricky learning curve, for Saavn, since the success (or otherwise) would be governed by its skill at execution, adapting quickly to emerging audience analytics and accepting the norms of avoiding millisecond latency.For now, even as Saavn continues to be a construct of various slices – ranging from a serious satellite radio player, to a streaming service, to taking a stab at being an audio Netflix, Bhat does not rule out the foray into video. “We have re-built our products to house non-music programming and this is also the foundation for future video products.”